Sure Ways To Maintain Your Natural Hair

NATURAL hair, especially that of an African woman, has been seen as the type of hair that is very difficult to maintain.

This has made a lot of women turn their natural hair to relaxed hair because it is easier to maintain. Relaxers cause lots of damages to the hair like scalp irritation, breakage, hair damage, hair loss, burns e.t.c. In this post, I will be talking about hair porosity and wash day.

Hair porosity refers to how well your natural hair can absorb and hold moisture. It is very important to know your hair porosity in order to know the type of product to use. There are three types of hair porosity: High porosity, Medium porosity, Low Porosity.

To take a porosity test, take a clean strand of hair without any product (creams, oils and other hair foods), place it gently in a bowl of lukewarm water. If the strand of hair sinks immediately, sorry you have a high porosity hair; if your hair sinks slowly, thank goodness you have a medium/normal porosity hair and if your hair floats, you have a low porosity hair.

High porosity hair absorbs a lot of moisture, but it is unable to retain the moisture; it tangles and dries easily.

A normal/medium porosity hair absorbs and retains moisture and it is very easy to deal with

.Low porosity hair does not absorb moisture when your hair is wet, it will take a long time to dry; Hair is always shiny.

Avoid shampoos with sulphates and silicone. African hair is extremely dry but these chemicals make the hair dry more. Examples of shampoo without silicone and sulphate; Cantu, Aunty Jackie’s shampoo e.t.c. You can always use African black soap as your shampoo too.

You don’t have to wash your hair every day, Washing it every day will only cause damages to your hair. Wash once a week or once in two weeks.

Pre-poo before shampooing. Pre-poo is when you massage and detangle your hair with any oil of your choice; Olive oil, coconut oil, tea tree oil etc. After massaging and detangling with your oil, cover with a shower cap for 30 minutes or as long as you like. Pre-poo is not compulsory but it is very helpful. After pre-poo, you shampoo.

Deep conditioning is the next step after shampooing. A deep conditioner helps to retain moisture after washing. There are different kinds of deep conditioner, readymade or the one you do yourself. You can deep condition with banana, Avocado, honey e.t.c. You can get readymade deep conditioner from vendors who sell natural hair stuff. After applying your deep conditioner, you wear a processing cap and your heat cap. The heat produced from the heat cap helps to open up the cuticle to allow a deeper penetration into strands. Leave the heat cap for 40 minutes and wash off the deep conditioner.

After deep conditioning, use a leave-in-conditioner. A leave-in-conditioner helps to lock in moisture. You can also use any oil of your choice; growth oils, coconut oil etc. These oils also help to lock in moisture.

Water is the most important of all because Water=Moisture. Whatever products you buy for your natural hair always make sure water/Aqua is part of the ingredient.